Kamakhya is a powerful Goddess- probably the only one celebrating the female ability to produce offspring. This is the menstruating Goddess and the phenomena of menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth are worshipped here.
The place of worship is ancient, believed to have been found at the site where the Mother Goddess's womb fell from the sky.
Anyway, while the temple experience was a bit disappointing (am not sure if I should go to see any further famous temples in the North... they all have a single formula: go, buy a massive basket of junk which are apparently essentials to enter a temple, get accosted by a priest, go do a bunch of things they tell you to do and come back with the same basket of junk that you had taken inside in the first place, but now apparently blessed). What is the true miracle is that some temples, even in the face of this blatant money-mindedness automated herding through random corridors, still retain a feeling of deep spirituality. Many other temples, however, become just the backdrop to this empty and heartless monetary machine.
What made the Kamakhya experience bearable, in my mind, is the nearby Kali temple and its forest grove.
B and I saw a solid waste management plant and in our new avatars as people deeply interested in waste in all its forms, decided to go and see what it was.
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| This is the unassuming entrance to the most magical secret grove! |
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| Many birds! Right at eye level! Very happy!! |
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| Hello Mr. Kingfisher! |
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| Kali Ma temple |
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| Pretty little village road. Image courtesy: Bidipta Roy |
Birds seen:
a) Flamebacked woodpecker.... for the first time in my life, I saw it fly... and realized it's quite a small bird! It's wing feathers are a shape that is quite unique- separate, a bit like fingers.
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From Wiki media commons
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b) White breasted Kingfishers- a family of five!
c) Blue throated barbet
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Just look at those colors! From Wiki commons
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d) A pair of Oriental magpie robins: these are pretty common birds in and around Bangalore. But this is the first time I saw a female one at very close quarters.
A few years ago, I had spent hours and hours hunting online to try to identify a bird that I had seen. It took me a long time to realize that it was the female cuckoo! Thankfully, this time, it didn't take me quite as long to think of this little lady as the female member of a known bird species, instead of a totally new species of bird :)
So, am feeling rather happy about my growth as a birdwatcher.
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| From Wiki commons |
e) Perhaps it is only my imagination, but I feel that the crows of Guwahati are smaller than those in the South. Not sure if there are species differences- I am unable to make out even after using the field guide.
f) Many mynas.
Tried returning to Kamakhya that evening for more birdwatching, but alas, the traffic of Guwahati conspired against us. We were stuck in traffic for more than an hour and ran out of time.
I'm realizing Guwahati is quite unique in the way of terrains (river, wetland, hilly forests- all within a few minutes of each other), but at least at this time of the year, there are not that many different bird species: throughout the city, you see the usual urban dwellers, crows and mynas. By the river side, there are many egrets (great, intermediate, cattle, and little) and cormorants. There are also many broad-leaved groves inhabited by birds like woodpeckers and barbets. But what I don't see are the striking differences in urban bird population that is found in, say, Gangtok. In fact, Guwahati is quite similar in bird life to Kolkata and parts of Bangalore.
21/5/2022
Today, PH, PK and I went to Deepar Beel, a large river wetland bird sanctuary about 10km west of Guwahati. Since we are so much to the East, sunrise occurs here at around 4:30am. By 5am, the light is just about the same as around 7am in Bangalore! We left the room by 5:30am and reached DB by 6-ish.
The road here has forested hills on one side and a large wetland lake on the other. Interestingly, the bird population on either side of the road is quite different.
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| Collared myna. Pic from ebird.org |
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| Pied starling. Pic from ebird.org |
A coppersmith barbet came out for a quick hello
By the forested side, caught sight of the blackhooded oriole... did you know that a BHO makes a whole lot of sounds? Sometimes it is an easy "chew chew!"... other times it sounds like a gargle followed by a sneeze "croa croa achoo!". Weird sounds emanate from this fellow. We saw a nest and a pair of birds nearby, so presume that these two are a mated pair.
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| Hello handsome! Pic from ebird.org |
A couple of fat pigeons sat by a tree. They are a type of green pigeon, but I'm not sure if they are Green Pintailed pigeons or Yellow-footed Green Pigeon
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| Pintail |
So... my notes from the morning specifically say yellow foot, but nothing about the tail. Also I do recall the face around the eyes being rather grey. So it does seem to be the yellow-footed green pigeon. My uncertainty stems from the fact that all pics of the yellow foot seem to show a uniform green-yellow underbelly, whereas I have clearly noted that the green bits ended in a circular margin and the rest of the body was grey. Could the differences be due to the breeding season (or the lack of it? It seems to be more the nesting season now) or gender/ geography/age ?
For now, will call it Yellow-footed Green Pigeon.
Getting ready to head into IIT-G. No doubt, there will be more opportunities to bird there.
